Norwegian Red
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Norsk Rødt Fe
- Norsk Raudt Fe
- Norwegian Dairy Cattle
- Norwegian Red Cattle
- Norway
- Argentina
- Netherlands[2]
 A cow | |
| Conservation status | FAO (2007): not at risk[1]: 144 |
|---|---|
| Other names |
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| Country of origin | Norway |
| Distribution |
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| Use | dairy |
| Traits | |
| Weight | |
| Height | |
| Coat | red-and-white, black-and-white |
| Horn status | polled or horned |
| |
The Norwegian Red or Norsk Raudt Fe[4]: 509 is a Norwegian breed of dairy cattle. It was formed in 1961 through successive mergers of various traditional and regional breeds. In 2016 it accounted for approximately 85% of the cattle in the country, and about 99% of the national dairy herd.[5]: 263
The cattle may be either horned or naturally polled; despite the breed name, the coat may be either red-and-white or black-and-white.[3]
The Norwegian Red is a modern composite breed. It was formed in 1961 by merging two existing Norwegian breeds, the Red Polled Eastland or Østlansk Rødkolle and the Norwegian Red-and-White or Norsk Rødt og Hvitt Fe. Each of these two was already a composite breed: the Red Polled Eastland was recorded from 1892 and later underwent cross-breeding with Swedish Red-and-White and Ayrshire, with some influence from the Dutch Black Pied;[6]: 98 the Norwegian Red-and-White, established in 1939, also derived from cross-breeding of Swedish Red-and-White and Ayrshire, but had absorbed the Hedmark and Red Troender.[6]: 88 The Red Troender, in turn, derived from cross-breeding in the nineteenth century of local Troender and Røros cattle with Ayrshire stock; it had later absorbed the Målselv (Målselvfe) breed of Tromsø and northern Norway.[6]: 98 The Dølafe, originating from local cattle of south-east Norway, Telemark (Telemarksfe) and Ayrshire, was merged into the Norwegian Red in 1963.[6]: 46 It was followed in 1968 by the South and West Norwegian or Sør og Vestlandsfe, which had been created in 1947 by fusion of the Vestland Fjord (Vestlandsk Fjordfe), the Vestland Red Polled (Vestlandsk Raudkolle) and the Lyngdal (Lyngdalsfe).[6]: 108
The cattle have been exported to many countries, among them Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, the United States and Madagascar, where exports began in the 1960s, and where by 2003 there were over 50000 head.[5]: 263
